I’m just back from visiting Kate – eldest daughter – in Leeds. She’s moving house soon so I was called in to clean out the oven. We had a good day and even the Chelsea result couldn’t dampen my spirits.

Now I promised you that I would let you know why Rosie and I are going to walk 130 miles from here, the Westmorland dock in Dublin, where the River Liffey and the Grand Canal meet, to here, Galway Bay, where Ireland finishes and the Atlantic Ocean begins.

When Rosie retired she had a list of “must-do” things to tick off. The first was to go to Cheltenham Races on St Patrick’s Day where, incidentally, I managed to place fifteen bets and did not win a penny!

Next on the agenda was to walk part of a medieval pilgrimage route across Spain to Santiago de Compostella. We managed that without too much trouble and this prepared us for her next challenge, to walk across Ireland. Those of you who know me are aware that in 2007 I was diagnosed with breast cancer and in 2009 with prostate cancer. It seemed like a good idea to find a charity who would welcome our plan as a means of raising funds for research. We made contact with the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal and we set a target of £5000 to make our walk worthwhile.

Our walk starts on St Patrick’s Day 2011 and will last for ten days. The first 90 miles will be along the Grand Canal and the final stretch will be along quiet country lanes of County Galway. Along the way we’ll see scenes such as these

which, I’m sure you’ll agree are very nice.

Hopefully there will also be a lot of this to ease the pain!

So, its a good story and a good walk and it stems from a really nasty couple of illnesses that are, hopefully, behind us. Keep an eye on our fundraising page that is showing over £600 www.justgiving.com/rosiemcnamara and join our Facebook group “Rosies cross-Ireland walk”. If you can mange to support us financially, thank you very much. Tomorrow I am determined to get a walk in somewhere. Watch this space!